The Capability of Bluetooth for Real-Time Transmission in Automation

Keywords

Abstract

This examination comprises a digital analysis of the real
time capability of Bluetooth to meet the requirements of
the automation ﬁeld, using ACL and SCO communication
channels. The bit error ratio is taken as basic characteriz
ing indicator for the evaluation of the reliability of the com
munication channels. The delay time, its variation and the
corresponding jitter provide a basis to review the time be
haviour. Cambridge Silicon Radios (CSR) Bluetooth chips
of type BlueCore 2 and BlueCore 4 were used. Several
conﬁgurations with and without activation of quality of ser
vice (QoS) have been investigated regarding delay and jit
ter. For the basic communication channel’s description and
classiﬁcation in terms of burst error behaviour, the well
known Gilbert-Elliott model was used. Their parameters
were gained by estimations using the Baum-Welch algo
rithm. These practical relevant parameters of the model
can be used for the development and evaluation of channel
codes and safety protocols within realistic simulations.